I used to enjoy Microsoft’s new browser Edge, until the Windows fall Creator Update started to wreck my favorites. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get my favorites to work in a proper way. So some months ago it was time to move to another browser and I chose Opera.
But there is a windows feature I like, it’s the Cortana search box. Unfortunately, even if you chose Opera as your default browser, the Cortana search box will keep launching Edge.
To solve this problem there are 2 solutions :
1) New method:
Follow the instructions in this article: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/force-cortana-use-chrome-google-windows-10/.
I installed EdgeDeflector and it’s working well. On this web page you will find an alternative app that redirects Edge launches to your default browser, and some additional information.
2) Old method :
I found this nice article by Ramesh Srinivasan : “Make Cortana Search Google Using Chrome or Default Browser“.
This works well but I had to alter the code to fit it to my needs. What I changed:
– Opera is used instead of Chrome.
– Bing is kept instead of Google (I couldn’t care less for Google’s services).
– There was a a weird problem after I applied this change to the registry: when I started Outlook, the “debugger” script, aka cortana_default_browser.vbs, was launched. This caused an annoying script error message at Outlook startup. I don’t understand why Outlook tries to lauch this script. But anyway, I found a way to workaround this problem so the error message gets out of the way.
– In the above mentioned web links, there are 2 ways to use Cortana Search with another browser. I only use the method 1. I tried to make method 2 work to no avail. The problem with method 1 is that Internet Explorer won’t work anymore, but perhaps it’s not a big deal.
How to make it work.
– Download my zip file here and unpack it in some folder like c:\program files\Cortana.
– Start Edge and in options > advanced > Enable “Optimize taskbar web search results for screen readers”. Without enabling that option, the script doesn’t run.
– Open Start, Settings, Default Apps. Choose a different web browser from the list. I chose Opera.
– Double-click “cortana_default_browser.reg” to run it.
– Copy the file “cortana_default_browser.vbs” to your Windows directory. Click “Continue” when when Windows says Access is Denied to copy or move the file into the Windows directory.
– Test the Cortana Search box. If it doesn’t work, restart your PC.
– If you want to undo these settings, try undo.reg.
Note : I wanted to tell Mr Ramesh Srinivasan about my problem and about this blog post but his web page’s comment section is closed.
I hope this script will work for you.
